As thousands of followers cheered, secession leader Umberto Bossi declared northern Italy an independent nation Sunday, in his sharpest challenge yet to the country's political establishment.
"We peoples of Padania solemnly proclaim: Padania is an independent and sovereign federal republic," said Bossi, using the name he would give to an independent north.The declaration was only a symbolic gesture, marking a dramatic finale to three days of rallies for secession and against the Rome-based government, which Bossi accuses of oppressing and exploiting Italy's comparatively wealthy north.
Bossi leads the Northern League party, which emerged in the early 1990s as a powerful force in the north's wealthy, industrialized regions, which include the cities of Venice, Treviso, Milan, Bergamo and Brescia.
Polls show only a small minority of northern Italians favor secession. By police estimate, 10,000 supporters turned out to hear Bossi's declaration of independence, the biggest crowd yet in the three days of protests.
Landing near Venice's Grand Canal in a catamaran, the gravelly voiced leader somberly read out a declaration that condemned the Italian state for "colonial oppression, economic exploitation and moral violence" and denounced Rome for using the north's resources for "Mafia-like welfare for the south."
"I feel free of Rome," said Andrea Dalla Vecchia, 21, who came from nearby Vicenza to see Bossi.
Earlier Sunday, Premier Romano Prodi, speaking elsewhere in the north, declared that "unity and autonomy must travel together in our country."
Scores of independence events leading up to the declaration were held in cities and towns along the Po River, which runs through the rich industrial and agricultural heartland of northern Italy.
In Venice, more than 4,000 police were on hand to control the crowds. Leftist Mayor Massimo Cacciari urged citizens to stay home.
Boos and catcalls went up from League followers when a woman draped an Italian flag from a window overlooking the rally. She responded with a rude gesture and left the banner hanging.
A major counter-protest organized in Milan by the right-wing National Alliance drew some 100,000 people, who waved Italian flags and listened to the national anthem.
Shoving broke out at another counter-rally by southern mayors gathered in the lagoon city of Chioggia, injuring a parliamentary deputy.
On Saturday night, Bossi announced the creation of a "national guard" of Padania. The League already has a green-shirted security force, an ugly reminder for some Italians of the black-shirted thugs that flourished under Fascist rule.
Bossi - under investigation by several prosecutors for allegedly threatening public officials and other alleged offenses - has called for the removal of southerners from government jobs, a tax boycott and northerners-only unions.
His comments have drawn the ire of the government and parties on the left and right.